Burt, best known as the “bastard” saltwater croc from Crocodile Dundee, died over the weekend. Long live Burt.
Along with a knife, there’d be no Crocodile Dundee without crocodiles, and Burt both appeared in the 1986 film and also reportedly inspired the prop croc that nearly gobbled up unwitting reporter Sue Charlton (played by Linda Kozlowski) in one critical scene.
Burt “passed away peacefully” at the Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin, Australia, the herpetarium and aquarium wrote on Facebook, estimating that he lived well into his 90s.
Named after the late actor Burt Reynolds and weighing in at roughly 1,500 pounds, Burt drives a central conflict in the Australian-American action-comedy flick. The croc rises from murky waters just as Charlton wades in for a cooling dip and a drink, when he (or rather, the prop purporting to be him) suddenly snatches the canteen around her neck with great, big, pointy teeth. In the nick of time, the voyeur Mick Dundee (played by Paul Hogan) leaps into frame and mercilessly deals Burt a deathblow with his iconic knife.
The incident trauma-bonds the characters and concludes with an embrace. In Dundee’s arms, Charlton asks, “is it dead?” Dundee quips back, “well if it isn’t, I’m gonna have a hell of a job skinning the bastard.”
Burt’s apparent on-screen disposition wasn’t just fiction, according to the Crocosaurus Cove post. The aquarium described him as a “fiery,” “fierce,” and “challenging” croc who came to be a well-known “ambassador for crocodile education.” The site also called him “a confirmed bachelor—an attitude he made clear during his earlier years at a crocodile farm.”
Burt first arrived at the farm in the 1980s, after being captured from the Reynolds River in Australia’s Northern Territory, according to the social media post. The largest reptiles alive today, saltwater crocodiles are also native to Eastern India and Southeast Asia. They’re not listed as endangered, though National Geographic notes that the species’ “reputation as a man-eater” puts “pressure on the population.” It stands to reason that this is due at least in part to films such as Crocodile Dundee, as experts have linked Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) to harmful outcomes for sharks.
On Facebook, Crocosaurus Cove visitors shared their own colorful memories of Burt and wished the powerful reptile well in the great beyond.
“Hope the rivers are full of tasty fish where you are now,” said one commenter warmly. “Hope he WD be stuffed n not incinerated,” offered another.
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